Expert reviews and ratings

Its flaws elsewhere are all the more disappointing. So much care is apparent in its construction, but in its attempt to merge multiple genres and styles together, Enter the Gungeon’s most important elements--namely its roguelike flavors and massive offering of distinct weapons--don’t gel. It’s a game at odds with itself.

This is a game shaped by current fashions - the procedural generation, the M83-style soundtrack, the streamer-friendly novelty of each playthrough. Yet it evades derivation through its vibrancy of character and imagination. Even within the hoariest cliché of the video game gun, Enter the Gungeon shows that there are fresh wonders to be found.

One notable little detail in Enter the Gungeon is that every time you return to the hub area early on, the four characters keep decking out the little corner they’ve set camp in with more and more decorations such as bunk beds and pizza boxes, eventually becoming increasingly comfortable even as they keep heading back into the carnage over and over.

Enter the Gungeon’s design is quite sophisticated for a game about shooting bullets at anthropomorphized bullets with guns; it uses elements of one genre in the context of another, enhancing its most enjoyable elements. Despite there being so many more moving parts than in a typical arcade shooter, it somehow feels more immediate and focused on getting you into the action and keeping you there. And where other similar games can run out of novelty within a few hours, Enter the Gungeon is still surprising me with new implements of destruction after 50 hours of play.

Enter the Gungeon's design is quite sophisticated for a game about shooting bullets at anthropomorphized bullets with guns; it uses elements of one genre in the context of another, enhancing its most enjoyable elements. Despite there being so many more...